Raising Cute Baby Lemurs to Save a Species

Aug. 27, 2014
- The Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina has the world's largest and
most diverse collection of lemurs anywhere in the world outside of
Madagascar, where lemurs are native. They are the most endangered group
of animals on Earth. In this video, visit the center to see some of the
tiniest lemurs in their first days after birth.

Raising Cute Baby Lemurs to Save a Species

Aug. 27, 2014
- The Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina has the world's largest and
most diverse collection of lemurs anywhere in the world outside of
Madagascar, where lemurs are native. They are the most endangered group
of animals on Earth. In this video, visit the center to see some of the
tiniest lemurs in their first days after birth.

Lemurs are magnetic. Lemurs look at us
with the same sort of brain, intelligence and evolutionary history that we
have. So when you meet a lemur, you're meeting a relative, and when you look
into a lemurs eyes, you can tell that they're looking back. And the same things
you're thinking about them, they could be thinking about you.

Each species that we house here has its
own species survival plans, or SSP's. We keep track of everybody's family
history, and then we use that information to decide who the most genetically
distinct breeding pairs would be. When we breed for lemurs, we want to make
sure that we preserve genetic diversity in the captive population. That could
mean that we're going to receive a lemur from another facility or we may be
shipping a lemur to a facility elsewhere in the United States.

Many times, because we have so many
lemurs, the breeding recommendations are in house.

I think all of the lemur keepers and the
other staff at the lemur center live for lemur babies. They're so precious and
valuable to us because in many cases, they could be some of the only
representatives for their species in captivity and each new lemur baby could be
the saving grace for their population in the wild.

The newest arrivals at the lemur center
are some of our grey mouse lemurs. One female had a set of triplets, which is
really exciting, and then another female had a set of twins. For the larger,
daytime active lemurs, we've got about nine or ten infants right now.

We want to make sure that everyday when
we weigh them, their weight is going up. Even if it's just a gram or two, that
means that they're nursing and that they're healthy.

For the first week of the infants life,
it's pretty vulnerable. One of the ways that we know that they're healthy is that
they're clinging very tightly to mom. And most of that first 30 days is spent
nursing and sleeping.

After the first 30 days, the babies seem
become really strong at that point and they'll start testing their lemur legs,
so they'll climb off of mom, sit on the branch next to her and then when a twig
snaps, they turn around and they jump right back on her back or onto her belly.

Lemurs today are actually considered the
world's most endangered group of mammals. Some species of lemur, there's only a
few hundred individuals left, and could be extinct within a decade or two. The
most compelling reason for me to study lemurs, breed them in captivity and go
to Madagascar and work with local people to try to protect them, is that these
animals are our relatives. And we have the biggest impact on their extinction
in the future and we have the biggest chance to protect them, to make sure that
lemurs do not become the first primates to become extinct in over 100 years.

Raising Cute Baby Lemurs to Save a Species

Aug. 27, 2014
- The Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina has the world's largest and
most diverse collection of lemurs anywhere in the world outside of
Madagascar, where lemurs are native. They are the most endangered group
of animals on Earth. In this video, visit the center to see some of the
tiniest lemurs in their first days after birth.